United Country Real Estate Celebrates 85 Years of Real Estate Marketing Innovation

Sept. 27, 2010 - PRLog -- From the first successfully transmitted television picture to the first printing of the literary classic, The Great Gatsby, 1925 was a year of many advancements and innovations. It was also in 1925 that Roscoe L. Chamberlain set out to change the real estate industry with the founding of what would become United Country Real Estate, in Kansas City, Mo., with the goal of giving people in urban and suburban areas a “roadmap to the country.” His mission of providing a more effective way to market country and small town properties has remained the foundation of the company throughout its 85-year history.

United began looking for ways to connect people long before the internet and commercial airlines. How could a person living in suburban California with a dream of moving to the country learn about the perfect property for sale in rural Missouri in the 1920s? It was this dilemma that led the company to launch the nation’s first-ever real estate catalog in 1928, featuring properties for sale across the nation. That original 1928 edition of the United catalog is currently housed in the Smithsonian Institution.

Today, United Country Real Estate, the nation’s leading resource for lifestyle and non-urban real estate, continues the legacy of the United catalog, which has remained in continuous publication since 1928, and currently publishes six real estate catalogs featuring more than 30,000 United Country listings from across the country.

“Flipping through the 1928 United catalog, you get a glimpse into the days when $1,500 could buy you 180 acres in rural Arkansas, two horses, 30 hens and a fishing pond – barn and tools included. While many things have changed since those days, the lure of small-town America is alive and well, and United Country continues helping people realize the freedom of owning a piece of the American dream,” said Mike Duffy, president of United Country Real Estate.

The company, which today serves a wide variety of real estate markets nationwide through a unique blend of conventional and auction real estate sales methods, has approximately 600 offices and 4,000 sales professionals in 42 states and Costa Rica. Although United Country’s methods have expanded to include cutting-edge technology and real estate marketing techniques, the company’s founding mission of “uniting buyer and seller” remains the core of the business.

“Roscoe Chamberlain’s innovative spirit has remained the foundation of what the company has become today and through the ongoing dedication to providing innovations in country real estate marketing, United is recognized as the nation’s highest ranked real estate franchise company in many national surveys. We are proud to celebrate not only the company’s 85-year heritage, but also the contributions of many great leaders who have championed Chamberlain’s mission throughout the years, the dedicated employees whose work continues to make this company successful, the hardworking franchisees, brokers, agents and auctioneers who have represented our brand so well and especially our buyers and sellers, who it remains a pleasure to serve,” said Dan Duffy, chief executive officer of United Country Real Estate.

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About United Country
United Country Real Estate is the largest fully integrated network of conventional and auction real estate professionals in the United States. Based in Kansas City, Mo., the company has been an innovator in real estate marketing since 1925. United Country supports more than 600 offices across the U.S. and in Costa Rica with a unique, comprehensive marketing program that includes one of the largest portfolios of property marketing web sites (more than 1,100 separate sites), seven proprietary real estate catalogs with a cumulative distribution of 1.5 million readers, an extensive, current buyer database and national advertising of properties that reaches more than 90 million homes per week. United Country has recently been recognized by Dun and Bradstreet’s AllBusiness.com, The Land Report, Entrepreneur and The Wall Street Journal as one of the top U.S. real estate franchises.

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